Elizabeth Durand Streisand is the co-founder and CEO of Broadway Roulette
Elizabeth Durand Streisand is the co-founder and CEO of Broadway Roulette, the fun and simple way to see a Broadway show: you pick the date and can exclude up to 4 shows you've already seen or don't want to see, all tickets are just $49-$59
Broadway Roulette was born in 2016 after Elizabeth saw a new opportunity to pair expiring inventory to cultural events with consumers struggling with decision fatigue.
How does it work? First, you pick a day and the number of tickets you want. Next, you customize your spin: you can set your preferences for the type of show you want to see and eliminate the ones you don’t!
How does it work?
Most recently TodayTix, a theatre-focused ticket resale marketplace, has announced its acquisition of Broadway Roulette, the transaction closed in April of this year. Although fear not, the deal will leave Broadway Roulette’s website completely intact, rather than folding it into the TodayTix system directly.
Elizabeth graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s in English. She then spent a decade in the trenches of New York's entertainment scene, with bylines in Us Weekly, Yahoo, Life & Style, NY Post, NY Daily News, MTV, and Good Housekeeping among others...
I had the pleasure of asking Elizabeth a few questions about starting Broadway Roulette, and she was so kind as to answer candidly about her entrepreneurial journey
How did Broadway Roulette first come about? What inspired you to start?
Honestly, my own pathetic track record of *only* seeing Broadway shows when I had friends or family in town... despite the fact that I always had an *amazing* time whenever I went! I realized there were a few reasons I wasn't going more often: 1) I hated researching what to see 2) I didn't want to pick a show that others may not enjoy 3) I didn't feel comfortable figuring out where to sit or how much to pay. Basically, I did not have the confidence to pull the trigger except when I absolutely had to :-) I wondered if there was a way to remove some of those obstacles so that buying theater tickets would be fun and easy -- instead of not fun and not easy... and Broadway Roulette was born!
The husband-and-wife duo: Broadway Roulette co-founders.
What were some of the obstacles you had to overcome?
The biggest obstacle was getting buy-in from the decision-makers in the industry. I was the new girl in town, trying to convince established players to try something new. There were a lot of unreturned phone calls and not-so-great meetings at the start. Many people told me no one would ever pay to see a show they didn't pick. Sales continued to grow, however, and after a few years, we finally started gathering support.
How did the Broadway Mixer pivot during COVID come about?
I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "Necessity is the mother of invention." That's pretty much the entire backstory of the creation of Broadway Mixers. With no theatre to send people to, we had to become creators ourselves. We quickly carved out a B2B niche in the virtual events space and leaned into that.
And finally, what do you wake up looking forward to right now?
SHOWS RESTARTING TIMES SQUARE REFILLING TOURISTS RETURNING PRE-THEATRE DINNERS REASONS TO WEAR HIGH HEELS HUGGING PEOPLE
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